Tianjin, China, October 10, 2013
– Chinese Taipei survived a strong come back by China while Japan claimed victory over Korea on day five of the men’s volleyball
tournament at the 6th East Asian Games here on Thursday.

After five days of action,
Chinese Taipei remained undefeated with seven points from three
outings. China and Japan earned seven points, while Korea took
three. Hong Kong has not won any points yet. Only the top four teams will
enter the semi-finals.

October
11 is the last day of robin round play with Japan playing against Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei
challenging Korea.

Chinese
Taipei, who arrived here on October 7 after finishing in ninth place at the
Asian Senior Volleyball Championship in Dubai (UAE), attacked hard right from
the opening whistle in a tough match against China.

Chinese
Taipei used their exceptional offensive attacking mobility with veteran spikers
Huang Chien Feng and Wang Ming Chun and their blocks to take the first two sets
25-22, 25-18. The two Chinese Taipei top scorers scored 22 and 26 points each
for their team.

The match dynamic changed in the
third and fourth set when China did their utmost to make counter attacks
while players from Chinese Taipei seemed too relaxed, lost their concentration and
made errors.

The attacking
skills from the 210cm-high opposite Zhang Zhejia (22 points) and wing
spiker Xia Runtao (11 points), the two top scorers for China, allowed the
team to make a successful comeback in the third and fourth sets, which they won
25-21, 25-22, forcing the match into the fifth set.

However,
Chinese Taipei dominated the whole set, leading 10-4 and 14-7.
Though China saved three match points, their efforts were short-lived
as Huang Chien Feng closed the set 15-10 with a terrific spike to win the 129
minutes match.

China and Chinese Taipei
each had 63 spike wins and one ace. However, Chinese Taipei held their
advantage in blocks (17-10), while China totalled 27 errors compared to 24 by
Chinese Taipei.

Japan vs. Korea 3-1

Japan tried
hard to brush off Korea in four sets 3-1 (25-17, 25-18, 23-25, 25-22)
to capture their second victory.

Japan dominated Korea in
the first set with 8-6 and 16-12 leads at the two technical time-outs. The
opening frame closed 25-17. The second set went on in the same pattern
with Japan leading 8-6 and 16-10. Korea stayed out of reach
the rest of the way as they committed six errors in attacking and serving. The
set finished 25-18.

The
third set was closely fought as Korea recovered sufficiently to lead
8-4 and 16-12 at the technical time-outs. They did it by establishing a good
defensive game at the net, blocking and touching most of the opponents’ attacks,
and excellent saves in the back court. But Japan narrowed a five point deficit
from 13-18 to 23-24 before Ahn Woojae, best scorer of the game with 22 points,
including two blocks and two aces, to fire a devastating spike from the wing to
end the set.

The
fourth set saw Japan come out again with an excellent display. They
played every part of the game well to gain every point they made out of their
determined attempts. As Japan led with a commanding 24-19 needing
only one more point to win the set and the match, Korea stormed back to
save three match-points before a brilliant block from Japan ended Korea’s
entire challenge. Japan captured the set 25-22 and the match.

The Japanese committed 33 errors
while Korea had only 23. But they
out-spiked Korea 57-37 and added 14 block winners to their
records. Korea had only seven wins in blocking.

Japan will play against
Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei will challenge Korea on Friday to decide
the men’s final ranking in the preliminary round for the semi-finals.